Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans her Department has to inform universal credit claimants that they can apply to have their historic benefit over-payment debts waived on (a) health and (b) and financial grounds.

The Department is open and transparent about our approach to benefit recovery, publishing our full Benefit Overpayment Recovery staff guide on gov.uk. Information regarding the waiver process can be found in chapter 8 of this guide. I have included a link below for your information.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/878823/benefit-overpayment-recovery-guide.pdf

In addition, when the Department informs claimants of a benefit overpayment (either by letter, or via the journal in Universal Credit), they are advised to contact the Department’s Debt Management Team to discuss repayment. During this discussion, if a claimant expresses concern about repayment, Debt Management staff will inform them that they can request a waiver be considered.

It should be noted that a waiver can only be granted where the recovery of the overpayment is causing substantial medical and/or financial hardship, and where clear evidence of this can be provided.